Resource sustainability and challenges: Status and competitiveness of international trade in licorice extracts under the Belt and Road Initiative

Abstract

Licorice extract is widely used in medicine, food, pasture, and cosmetic industries. Its growing demand and limited wild licorice resources will create a huge gap between supply and demand. In the context of Belt and Road Initiative, a new pattern of international trade in licorice extracts has been formed. This paper analyzes the current situation of global trade of licorice extracts, and uses the latest available trade data to analyze the international trade competitiveness of major licorice extracts exporters in three aspects: market share (MS), trade competitiveness (TC), and revealed symmetric comparative advantage (RSCA). It is found that three categories of international competitive advantages can be categorized into three factors, which are the consumer market advantage, processing technology advantage and resource advantage of licorice. In addition, based on the research perspective of China, the current situation of Chinese licorice resources and international trade is analyzed to provide an early warning to prevent the tragedy of decreasing global licorice resources spreading around the world. Meanwhile, it also provides suggestions to ensure the sustainable development of licorice resources.

Keywords

• The Belt and Road Initiative
• Licorice extracts
• Trade
• Resource
• Sustainability